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Pilot Pollution is observed in areas where a mobile station does not have enough RAKE fingers for processing all the received pilot signals or there is no dominant pilot signal at all. This paper evaluates the impact of base station antenna configuration in a 3-sectored and in different 6-sectored WCDMA sites on the amount of pilot polluted areas.
Pilot Pollution is observed in areas where a mobile station does not have enough RAKE fingers for processing all the received pilot signals or there is no dominant pilot signal at all. This paper evaluates the impact of base station antenna configuration in a 3-sectored and in different 6-sectored WCDMA sites on the amount of pilot polluted areas.
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Pilot Pollution is observed in areas where a mobile station does not have enough RAKE fingers for processing all the received pilot signals or there is no dominant pilot signal at all. This paper evaluates the impact of base station antenna configuration in a 3-sectored and in different 6-sectored WCDMA sites on the amount of pilot polluted areas.
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Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
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Scarica in formato PDF, TXT o leggi online su Scribd
Mitigation oI Pilot Pollution through Base Station
Antenna ConIiguration in WCDMA
Jarno Niemel and Jukka Lempiinen Institute oI Communications Engineering, Tampere University oI Technology P.O. Box 553, FI-33101 Tampere, Finland Email: jarno.niemela, jukka.lempiainen}tut.Ii
Abstract-Pilot pollution is observed in areas where a mobile station does not have enough RAKE fingers for processing all the received pilot signals or there is no dominant pilot signal at all. This paper evaluates the impact of base station antenna configuration in a 3-sectored and in different 6-sectored WCDMA sites on the amount of pilot polluted areas. The results show that pilot polluted areas can be reduced simply by defining a proper base station antenna configuration by means of antenna horizontal beamwidth and downtilt. However, more advanced methods are needed in order to further decrease pilot polluted areas. Keywords-antenna configuration, pilot pollution, WCDMA. I. INTRODUCTION In a WCDMA (Wideband Code Division Multiple Access) system as UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System), mobiles in the network are able to identiIy diIIerent base station sectors according to their primary common pilot channel (P-CPICH) signal |1|. P-CPICH (hereby reIerred simply as CPICH) is send by all the base station stations typically with a Iixed power. CPICH signal is a predeIined symbol sequence and it is used as a phase reIerence Ior the other downlink common physical channels. Moreover, it is considered as a pure physical channel, since it carriers no data. CPICH is used Ior handover decisions, cell selections and reselections, and, under some circumstances, to aid in channel estimation. SuIIicient CPICH coverage is important to achieve sequentially to ensure proper Iunctionality oI cell selections and reselections, and handover measurements. However, CPICH also consumes the limited transmission power capability due to Iact that base stations send their unique CPICH signal continuously. ThereIore, CPICH power allocation is one important task in WCDMA network planning. In practice, however, CPICH coverage must overlap in cell border areas to accommodate soIt handovers (SHO) and in order to achieve proper indoor coverage at cell border areas |1|. Pilot pollution is observed in areas in which there are too many CPICH signals (diIIerent CPICH signal or their multipath components) received at the mobile station`s RAKE receiver than its capable oI processing, or none oI the received CPICH signals is dominant enough |2|. Each cell, which is heard by the mobile, will practically increase the interIerence level in the downlink (DL). Thus, hearing unnecessary pilot signals reduces the received energy per chip over the power density (E c /N 0 ) Irom the serving cell; in other words, reduces the quality oI an existing connection. In order to avoid pilot polluted areas, the cell dominance areas should be as clear as possible and unnecessary CPICH signals should not be heard. However, pilot pollution cannot be totally avoided with traditional radio network planning methods due to inhomogeneous propagation environment and overlapping cells. In WCDMA, a mobile measures and reports the received signal levels oI CPICH E c /N 0 . In UTRA FDD (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Frequency Division Duplex) mode, the mobile uses this value to deIine into which cell it is connected to both in idle and connected mode. Moreover, the mobile searches regularly better cells according to cell reselection criteria |2|. Thus, by increasing or decreasing the CPICH signal power, the cell dominance area can be either increased or decreased, respectively. The CPICH power adjustment can also be used, e.g., Ior load balancing |3|. This, however, can lead to degradation in capacity, iI CPICH powers are adjusted incautiously. CPICH power is also utilized in connection establishment mode when the mobile deIines the needed TX power Ior the Iirst preamble according to CPICH received signal chip power (RSCP) during a random access channel (RACH) procedure. In the connected mode, the mobile measures the E c /N 0 oI diIIerent cells according to the neighbor list. Furthermore, soIt handover decisions and active set updates are based on these measurements. Hence, the hearability oI clear CPICH signals is extremely important whether the mobile is in idle, connection establishment, or connected mode, and moreover, minimization oI pilot polluted areas will deIinitely lead to an improvement in network Iunctionality. In general, pilot pollution interIerence can be reduced by optimizing the pilot powers automatically in such a manner that required coverage thresholds are still exceeded. By a simple CPICH power controlling method, the air interIace perIormance oI WCDMA network can be slightly enhanced |3|- |4|. In |5|, a method is proposed Ior detecting pilot polluted areas without considering the impact oI antenna conIiguration. On the contrary, the method in |6| relies on the implementation oI multicarrier technology. Implementation oI repeaters can also reduce pilot pollution interIerence in CDMA networks |7|. Obviously, repeaters are able to reduce pilot polluted areas by making the dominance area oI donor cell clearer, thus reducing the contribution oI interIering pilots. However, repeaters could shiIt pilot pollution interIerence away Irom a repeaters dominance area, creating pilot polluted areas in another location |7|. In this paper, the target is to evaluate how much pilot polluted areas can be reduced with traditional radio network planning techniques as antenna horizontal beamwidth selection and downtilt schemes. The main concentration is paid on diIIerent 6-sectored site solutions. Also, a reIerence 3-sectored site is taken Ior a comparison. II. PILOT POLLUTION CPICH signal is sent Irom each sector antenna typically with a constant 30-33 dBm power, thus taking 5-10 oI the total macrocellular base station TX power (assuming maximum oI 43 dBm) |1|. All the mobiles in the network are continuously measuring the CPICH E c /N 0 oI the base station sectors included in the neighbor list, which is sent on the broadcast channel (BCCH). CPICH signals provide cell- speciIic signals Ior radio resource management Iunctions, such as handovers and cell selection/reselection. Hearing equal powered CPICH signals or multiple strong CPICH with their multipath components causes pilot pollution. The impacts oI pilot pollution can be observed in all states oI a mobile. In the idle mode, mobile may change the best cell continuously due to slow Iaded CPICH signals, iI it locates in pilot polluted area. This increases easily the signaling load in the network by causing, e.g., additional cell reselection messages. Moreover, receiving equal CPICH levels Irom multiple sectors simultaneously could aIIect the call establishment process |1|. Quality oI an existing connection can also be ruined by pilot pollution as observed in |7|. Moreover, iI the mobile receives strong pilot components Irom cells outside the active set (AS), the interIerence level at the cell will increase, and degradation in the signal quality can be observed. Clear dominance areas (meaning smaller amounts oI pilot pollution) could also make a SHO process more reliable as discussed in |8|. Fig. 1 illustrates this with an example oI a SHO scenario. Initially, a mobile is connected to the Cell 2. Cell 1 is added into mobile`s active set aIter its CPICH E c /N 0
level has exceeded the level oI reporting range (here timers or hysteresis are not used). The diIIerence in the levels oI the best server and reporting range is deIined as SHO window, which is a cell-speciIic parameter. Moreover, Cells 3 and 4 exceed the reporting range. However, only Ior a short period, which means that they cannot be utilized eIIiciently. Obviously, the example depicted in Fig. 1 is an unwanted situation. Throughout the study it is assumed that the Iourth CPICH signal is always the Iirst polluting CPICH`. The selection is based on the latest studies (e.g., |9|) where it have been shown that maximum practical active set size in WCDMA is three. However, at time instants when three pilots are observed at an equal level, a mobile could already suIIer Irom pilot pollution interIerence due to insuIIicient number oI RAKE Iingers. This problem is strongly seen, e.g., in rich multipath environment. III. SIMULATIONS A static simulator using Monte-Carlo approach was utilized to veriIy the system perIormance oI diIIerent antenna conIigurations. An accurate digital map (including morphological and topographical data oI the simulation area as well as building rasters) was given as an input Ior the simulator in order to model propagation in practical environment. COST- 231-Hata propagation model was applied together with some topographical correction Iactors and a Iunction describing diIIraction (Deygout-model). Propagation slope was kept constant (35dB/dec) throughout simulations. An average area correction Iactor was set to -6.7 dB corresponding to light urban/suburban environment. The base station and mobile station antenna heights were 25 m and 1.5 m, respectively. The
Figure 1. An example oI a SHO scenario. TABLE I. GENERAL SIMULATION PARAMETERS.
Figure 2. Illustration oI the paths under observation. Path 1 is denoted as main lobe-to-main lobe (main lobe-to-back lobe in 3-sectored network) and Path 2 as side lobe-to-side lobe path. Arrows indicate the antenna direction in 6-sectored sites. user proIile consisted only oI speech users (12.2 kbps). The network was arranged in a hexagonal grid oI 17 sites having equal site spacing oI 1.5 km. The nominal antenna directions in 6-sectored sites were 0, 60, 120, 180, 240, and 300. In 3- sectored conIiguration antenna directions were 0, 120, and 240. Other relevant simulation parameters are gathered in Table I. As a reIerence, a 3-sectored site conIiguration with antennas oI 65 horizontal beamwidth was used. The 3- sectored conIiguration was considered in order to realize how higher order sectoring aIIects the amount oI pilot polluted areas. The 6-sectored sites had diIIerent antenna conIigurations in sense oI antenna beamwidths, directions, and downtilt schemes. First oI all, traditional 6-sectored sites with 33 and 65 antennas were selected (with nominal antenna directions). Secondly, a mixed conIiguration consisting oI original 65 antennas oI the 3-sectored sites, and oI 33 antennas between the original 65 antenna (denoted as 6-sectored/65&33 conIiguration). The Iourth 6-sectored conIiguration was 33 antennas with a 30 shiIt in antenna directions in the Iirst tier oI the base stations (denoted as 6-sectored/33* conIiguration). ShiIting the antennas was utilized in order to Iill the coverage holes caused by narrow beam antennas |10|. Electrical and mechanical downtilt schemes were applied only Ior the nominal 33 antenna conIiguration. Downtilt angle oI 5 degree was selected Ior both downtilt schemes |11|- |12|. The analysis oI pilot polluted areas is conducted in two ways. Firstly, the Iirst Iour CPICH E c /N 0 levels are tracked along two paths as in Fig. 2. Path 1 is so-called main lobe-to- main lobe path (Path 1) and Path 2 is side lobe-to-side lobe path (Path 2). The lines were traced in such a manner that in 3- sectored conIiguration Path 1 corresponds to main lobe-to-back lobe scenario. In the analysis, CPICH signals Irom diIIerent base station sectors are not separated at all, but only the levels are tracked. Hence, diIIerent CPICH lines do not show changes oI best server. The diIIerent CPICH E c /N 0 levels are observed aIter numerous snapshots, thus representing average levels along the traced paths. Moreover, the presented results are averages oI all paths between 17 sites. IV. RESULTS Fig. 3 shows diIIerent CPICH E c /N 0 levels Ior 3- sectored/65, 6-sectored/65, and 6-sectored/65&33 conIigurations. The Iigures are organized in such a manner that the Path 1 is represented in the upper Iigure and Path 2 in the lower Iigure. The reporting range (-4 dB respect to best server) is also shown to give the idea oI possible SHO areas. For the 3- sectored/65 conIiguration diIIerent CPICH levels are traced always Irom main lobe-to-back lobe direction due to complete hexagonal network layout. This can be easily seen in the plot oI Path 1, where the level oI CPICH #1 (#n denotes the nth CPICH E c /N 0 signal) is better in the beginning oI the path and remains above -10 dB until the midway oI the path (Fig. 3a). The level oI CPICH #2 becomes more signiIicant closer to back lobe oI the traced path whereas the level oI CPICH #1 increases not until very close proximity oI the base station. All the way, the level oI CPICH #4 remains approximately under -20 dB. The perIormance in side lobe direction is also
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Figure 2. The levels oI CPICH E c /N 0 signals in main lobe-to-main lobe direction (upper Iigures) and side lobe-to-side lobe direction (lower Iigures) Ior (a) 3- sectored/65, (b) 6-sectored/65, and (c) 6-sectored/65&33 conIiguration. acceptable, since CPICH #4 remains close to -20 dB. Possible SHO areas can be distinguished Irom the graph where the levels oI CPICH #2 and #3 are at higher level. The 6-sectored/65 conIiguration in Fig. 3b perIorms obviously worse than 3-sectored/65. Clearly, CPICH #1 is not as dominant as in the 3-sectored conIiguration, and moreover, CPICH #1 remains around -10 dB. However, the level oI CPICH #4 reaches values just above -20 dB. In the side lobe direction, the situation is considerably worse Irom pilot pollution point oI view. Especially, the areas in the intersection oI three base stations (and 6 base station sectors), are problematic, since the level oI CPICH #4 increases signiIicantly. Also, the level oI CPICH #1 drops closer to -15 dB. These areas are quite heavily pilot polluted, since there is no dominant pilot and unusable CPICH signals get quite high values. In these areas, it might be also possible that the multipath components oI other CPICH signals in the active set cannot be utilized due to limited number oI RAKE Iingers. As seen Irom the graph, CPICH #4 could be easily utilized since it level is very close to CPICH #1. However, increasing the maximum active set size and the number oI RAKE Iingers would mean additional interIerence towards the network due to additional SHO connections and more complex receiver structures. The amount oI pilot pollution can be controlled by changing the antenna conIiguration (Fig. 4c), even though it cannot be totally avoided. Clearly, a narrow beam antenna reduces the hearability oI CPICH #4. Fig. 4a shows the results oI the 6-sectored/33 conIiguration. In the main lobe direction, the situation in sense oI pilot pollution interIerence is quite pleasant, since CPICH #1 is clearly dominating and the level remains close to -7 dB. However, the areas in the side lobe direction, especially the intersections oI three base stations, are still greatly pilot polluted as in previous 6-sectored conIigurations. As a matter oI Iact, all Iour pilots can be heard inside oI a 2 dB window. Naturally, the situation is improved towards the centre oI the observation area as the path approaches the main lobe-to-main lobe -situation. In Fig. 4b, a network-wide 5 electrical antenna downtilt is applied Ior the nominal 6-sectored/33 conIiguration. Obviously, the level oI CPICH #1 can be enhanced with downtilt. Moreover, the level oI CPICH #4 is managed to keep under -20 dB most oI the time. However, pilot polluted areas in the intersection oI three base stations still remain quite signiIicant, even though the pilot pollution area and its amount can slight be improved. Clearly, this shows that pilot pollution cannot be totally removed through antenna downtilt. In Fig. 4c, the corresponding graphs are shown Ior 6- sectored/33* conIiguration (30 shiIted antennas in the 1 tier oI base stations). Naturally, the concepts oI main and side lobe directions are not valid any more, but this way conIigurations remain comparable to each other. Along the main beam direction the situation is similar to Fig. 4a with a slightly higher level oI CPICH #2. However, in the side lobe direction, the situation is signiIicantly better compared to 6-sectored/33 with nominal antenna directions. The levels CPICH #3 and #4 are at lower level, hence indicating Ior a smaller amount oI pilot pollution. Obviously, by directing the antennas in such a
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Figure 4. The levels oI CPICH E c /N 0 signals in main lobe-to-main lobe direction (upper Iigures) and side lobe-to-side lobe direction (lower Iigures) Ior (a) 6- sectored/33, (c) 6-sectored/33 with 5 network wide electrical downtilt, and (c) 6-sectored/33* conIiguration. manner that they are not pointing towards each other can bring some advantages. Finally, Fig. 5a shows the cumulative distribution Iunction (CDF) oI the level oI CPICH #1 oI diIIerent antenna conIigurations. With the 6-sectored/33* conIiguration, 65 oI the simulation area is covered with CPICH #1 E c /N 0 level above -10 dB, whereas with the worst conIiguration (6- sectored/65) the corresponding value is 25. Moreover, the CDF shows that the selection oI antennas direction reduces pilot pollution by means oI more dominant CPICH #1. The gains oI sectoring can also be ruined iI a proper antenna selection is not made. Obviously, narrow beam antenna produces less interIerence, which on the contrary, results in better CPICH E c /N 0 levels Ior CPICH #1. Naturally, the hearability oI CPICH #4 increases as higher order sectoring is applied. However, suitable antenna solution can reduce the amount oI pilot pollution to the level oI lower order sectoring. Finally, Fig 5c shows how pilot pollution can eIIectively be reduced by downtilting (both electrical and mechanical). However, the hearability oI CPICH #4 remains although antennas are downtilted. Hence, Iurther reduction oI amount oI pilot polluted areas requires some more advanced techniques. V. CONCLUSIONS In this paper, the amount oI pilot polluted areas has studied in WCDMA cellular network under diIIerent sectoring scenarios, antenna horizontal beamwidths, directions, and downtilt schemes. The results indicate that pilot polluted areas can be reduced by selecting a proper base station antenna conIiguration. Antenna horizontal beamwidth and antenna direction has also a clear impact oI the pilot pollution. Moreover, antenna downtilt aIIects the pilot polluted areas. However, pilot pollution cannot be totally removed, which leaves room Ior some innovative solutions in mitigating the pilot pollution. Future studies will concentrate on evaluating the impact oI repeaters on pilot pollution. ACKNOWLEDGMENT Authors would like to thank European Communications Engineering (ECE) Ltd Ior helpIul comments concerning simulation parameters and environment, Nokia Networks Ior providing NetAct Planner tool Ior simulations, FM Kartta Ior providing the digital map, and the National Technology Agency oI Finland Ior Iunding the work. REFERENCES |1| J. Laiho, A. Wacker, T. Novosad (ed.), Radio Network Planning and Optimisation for UMTS. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2002. |2| J. Lempiinen, M. Manninen (ed.), UMTS Radio Network Planning, Optimi:ation and QoS Management. Dordrecht: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 2003. |3| K. Valkealahti, A. Hglund, J. Parkkinen, A. Hmlinen, 'WCDMA common pilot power control Ior load and coverage balancing, in Proc. 13th IEEE Int. Svmp. Personal, Indoor, and Mobile Radio Communications, vol. 3, pp. 1412 1416, 2002. |4| R. T. Love, K. A. Beshir, D. SchaeIIer, R. S. Nikides, 'A Pilot optimization technique Ior CDMA cellular systems, in Proc. 50th IEEE Jehicular Technologv Conf., vol. 4, pp. 2238 2242, 1999. |5| M. M. El-Said, A. Kumar, A. S. Elmaghraby, 'Sensory system Ior early detection oI pilot pollution interIerence in UMTS networks, in Proc. 10th Int. Conf. Telecommunicatios, vol. 2, pp. 1323 1328, 2003. |6| M. M. El-Said, A. Kumar, A. S. Elmaghraby, 'Pilot pollution interIerence reduction using multi-carrier interIerometry, in Proc. 8th IEEE Int. Svmp. Computers and Communication, pp. 919 924, 2003. |7| F. Sapienza, S. Kim, 'Dominant pilot recovery in IS-95 CDMA systems using repeaters, IEICE Trans. Communications, vol. 82, no. 1, January 1999. |8| J. Leino, M. Kolehmainen, T. Ristaniemi, 'On the eIIect oI pilot cancellation in WCDMA network, in Proc. 55th IEEE Jehicular Technologv Conference, vol. 2, pp. 611 614, 2002. |9| I. Forkel, M. Schinnenburg, B. Wouters, 'PerIormance evaluation oI soIt handover in a realistic UMTS network, in Proc. IEEE 57th Jehicular Technologv Conference, vol. 3, pp. 1979 1983, 2003. |10| J. Niemel, J. Lempiinen, 'Impact oI base station locations and antenna directions in WCDMA capacity and coverage evolution, in Proc. IEEE 6th Int. Svmposium on Wireless Personal Multimedia Communications, vol. 2, pp. 8286, 2003. |11| J. Niemel, J. Lempiinen, 'Impact oI base station antenna beamwidth on capacity in WCDMA cellular networks, in Proc. 57th IEEE Jehicular Technologv Conference, vol. 1, pp. 80 84, 2003. |12| T. Isotalo, J. Niemel, J. Lempiinen, 'Electrical antenna downtilt in UMTS network, in Proc. The 5th European Wireless Conference. Mobile and Wireless Svstems bevond 3G, pp. 265 271, 2004. |13| J. Niemel, J. Lempiinen, 'Impact oI mechanical antenna downtilt on perIormance oI WCDMA cellular network, in Proc. 59th IEEE Jehicular Technologv Conference, 2004.
(a) (b) (c) Figure 5. CDFs oI simulated scenarios. The levels oI (a) CPICH #1 and (b) CPICH #4 Ior all scenarios. Downtilt results are presented in (c).